Sir Philip Dowson is one of Britain’s most important Modern architects. Educated at Gresham’s School, Norfolk, he spent a year reading Mathematics at University College, Oxford, before joining the Royal Navy during the Second World War. He returned to study Art History at Clare College, Cambridge, from 1947 to 1950, and then trained at the Architectural Association. During the 1950s he worked with the engineer Sir Ove Arup. In 1963, he became a founding partner, and later chief architect, of the hugely influential Arup Associates, a collaborative team of architects, engineers and quantity surveyors. Arup developed a distinctive architecture in which the basis of design was rational, scientific function and construction technique taking consideration of the character of the materials. Dowson has won numerous prestigious awards, and was President of the Royal Academy between 1993 and 1999.